Bedtime

The new girls have been sitting on top of their little coup at bedtime and I have been lifting them at dusk and putting them in the chicken shed.

But the weather has changed from warm and dry to lots of rain. I had a tarpaulin over their little coup because when it rains water drips through the weld mesh above the solid, marine ply clad, fence and drips on to the top of the little coup. As the new girls insist on sitting on top rather than inside this is no longer suitable as they would be sitting in the wet.

A few nights ago I decided to remove the little coup and see what they would do at bedtime. It was a dark and wet end of the day. I went up to check and to my surprise all the main flock were still out but Ginger and Silver had perched in the chicken shed.

This shows that they know where to go and they want to go in. The next time I went up the main flock had gone in and Mango and Cloud were on the side perch and they had chased Ginger and Silver out.

The head pecking at bedtime is brutal. I can never understand how girls that get along fine during the day can be so savage at bedtime. I have been watching them each night. What happens is if Ginger and Silver perch on the side perch Mango and Cloud peck their heads until they are forced to leave.

But if I perch Mango and Cloud on the back perch the other girls peck their heads until they are forced to leave. This is why I have only been able to perch them all at dusk when it’s too dark for the pecking.

This is making it really hard to progress. I felt something needed to be done but there isn’t much room for another perch.

In the end I decided to try a perch across the corner of the shed where the other two perches almost meet. I found a piece of wood in the shed that was the same width as the perches. My husband shaved off the square edges and I sanded it down. It is now rounded on the edges and smooth. We screwed it to the brackets.

It looks higher but is only very slightly higher due to it being a deeper piece of wood . The pale edges are where it’s curved which doesn’t show up very well but it gives the gist of it.

Gold is the worst head pecker. The main flock always perch up one end of the back perch and Mango and Cloud on the side perch with Gold on the back but in the corner next to the new perch so that the other girls are away from her, out of reach of her pecking. I am hoping that Ginger and Silver may use the corner perch or maybe Gold will use the corner perch keeping her away from the rest of them. It will be interesting to see what happens at bedtime.

Later

I kept popping up to see how it was going. None of the girls were interested in the corner perch. Ginger and Silver were first in on the side perch. While the girls go in and settle Gold is constantly in and out. She has made it her job to terrorise the girls. Mango and Cloud actually settled next to Ginger and Silver. The rest of the girls settled on the back perch. Gold was still out so I put her on the corner perch to see what would happen.

Gold moved to the edge of the corner perch and pecked Cloud’s head until she forced her off the perch. Gold then followed her out. I perched Gold the other end of the back perch next to Snow. She pecked Snow’s head making her squeal and move away. I then moved Snow to the corner end of the perch and put Gold next to Storm.

Storm has moved up to the top girl position with Snow in second place. Gold and Red seem about equal in the next position with Cloud next then Mango. Silver is next and Ginger is bottom girl.

Gold doesn’t bother any of the girls during the day but she turns into a monster at bedtime. By this time it was dusk and the pop hole closed. I checked in the shed again and all was settled.

I don’t know how this is going to resolve itself. Maybe I shouldn’t watch and just leave them to it and see what happens but it’s hard.